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Extinction Begins

“Mommy, the mosquitoes outside my room are so big. They are as big as Daddy’s van, ” said Jack standing outside his parents’ room.

“May be you should stop watching more of those Syfy movies. I will unsubscribe to that channel,” said George, his father.

His mother, Patricia, told him not to worry. She closed the curtains in Jack’s room and put him back to sleep.

After a few minutes, Jack again came to his parents room. “Momma, the cockroaches outside my window are as big as my school bus. They are roaming outside my room.”

Patricia asked her husband not to scold the kid. This time it was George’s turn to take Jack to his room and put him to sleep. He told Jack not to look out of the window and sleep peacefully.

After a few minutes, Juno, their dog started barking violently. George went to the hall to find out what’s wrong with Juno. He thought Juno might have heard some sounds outside.

To his sudden surprise and shock, he saw an ant in the room. The ant was as big as Juno, a German Shepherd breed of dog. He shouted out loud and the ant quickly moved away from the room and hid somewhere.

Patricia was startled at the loud noises from the hall and rushed there to find out. She asked George as to what happened.

“I saw a gaint ant now,” was all that he could answer.

Patricia became furious and asked him, “Is it a game? Where is Jack? Did you guys plan to play this game all night? I’m tired of this game. Please stop it. I have so much work tomorrow. I have to go to sleep immediately.’

Just as she was about to leave, she saw a huge ant making its way into Jack’s room.

“Told you,” said George who continued to remain in shock.

George and Patricia immediately rushed to his room. They noticed that Jack was safe and asleep in his bed. They found the ant in the other corner of the room. George took the pushed the book rack towards the ant with full force and squeezed it behind the book rack. The ant died immediately.

However, these movements and noises woke up Jack and he started crying.

A horrified Patricia immediately took Jack and Juno to her bedroom.

George went around the house to check if there were more ants or any other huge animals. He could not relate to anything that he has seen or heard from Jack. He made sure all the doors, windows, and ventilators are properly closed. He also closed the door to the basement and the garage. They, usually, keep these open. He guessed that the ant would have somehow come through the garage.

“Is it aliens?” asked Patricia as soon as George returned to their bedroom.

“It was just a normal ant. However, it’s size got multiplied manifold. It’s like how a man turns into Hulk in that movie,” explained George.

They started hearing more noises outside their house. George pulled the curtains. They were terrified at the sight outside.

Bugs with the size of Godzillas were roaming. Mosquitoes that were as big as private jets were flying around. Humongous cockroaches that looked like alien bugs, centipedes and millipedes that resembled anacondas and lizards that looked like dinosaurs were roaming freely. It appeared like a Jurassic Park outside their house.

Because of so many huge animals roaming outside making loud noises, they could not see other houses. Their house is not in the middle of the forest. They live in the main city and there is more concrete than jungle around their house.

George and Patricia debated various possibilites – alien attack, nuclear attack by enemy nations, exposure to radioactive substances, end of the earth, and so forth.

They could not call anyone as the phone lines were jammed and unresponsive. The TV network was also down. The Internet was not working either. They needed more information. They did not how to deal with the situation. They cannot sleep. They never know which animal would break into their house and gobble them up as they are now very tiny in front of these animals.

Patricia’s phone rang suddenly. “Hey Pat, How are you? Are the bugs attacking your house too? They have already attacked and hijacked most of house,” said Kim, her sister.

“Do you know what is happening? What the hell are they? How do we save our families now? How can we be safe?”, asked Patricia.

“We have no clue. We are all locked up in our guest bed room. They are roaming freely in all the other rooms and rummaging our house. It is like war zone out here, ” told Kim.

And, then, the phone line got disconnected.

George quickly rushed to the basement. He opened the basement door. He took out the box of crackers and brought the box to the hall. He was not sure as to what would keep him safe. But, he wanted to have something handy in case the creatures tried to barge into his house. He also got some kerosene from the basement along with a couple of lighters.

“Are you sure fire is going to keep them away. How much fire are we going to use if they decide to attack us?” asked Patricia.

“When we don’t know what we are dealing and what we need to do, we should at least have some plan until we are sure we are completely safe,” explained George.

After an hour of preparations, they heard a huge blast outside. It sounded like a bomb attack. They checked out the windows and noticed that all the bugs and animals were going towards the place of attack where there was fire.

They heard two more bomb blasts. They assumed that the authorities decided to blast the bugs as that must have been the only alternative. For a few minutes, there were no bugs or animals outside their house. Immediately, they heard a knock on their door.

George cautiously opened the door. It was their neighbor, Sam. He rushed in along with his wife and two children. Sam told him that their house was full of bugs and they hid in their garage till now. As the huge creatures disappeared, they rushed to George’s house.

“We came here because we noticed that almost all the other houses were attacked by these bugs,” said Sam.

Within a span of few minutes, they heard multiple knocks and at least eight more neighborhood families rushed to George’s house to seek shelter there.

They all looked out the window. They shouted for two more families to come. But, as the families were running to George’s house, some bugs came, attacked them, and dragged them out of sight. The kids and adults were horrified at the sight.

Katherine, one of the oldest women in the neighborhood, started saying, “They have come back. These huge creatures. Within no time, they will attack this house too. They already ate so many people. May God bless us all at this darkest hour.”

They all heard some more bomb blasts the entire night. Bombs were blasted after every thirty minutes. By dawn, they could not see any creatures outside. However, none of the people dared to step out of this house.

Gary, on old man, tried to use his transistor for any radio signals from the government authorities.

Fortunately, they heard some announcement in one of the frequencies.

“The Army has exterminated most of these creatures. However, people are advised not to step out of their houses for the next few hours until the Army gets a confirmation that the threat is over. If the threat continues to exist and if there are more creatures out, the Government is planning to launch a nuclear attack in after two days. People are requested to wait for one more day. If you see more bugs, please rush to the nuclear safe zone in the outskirts of the city.”

They repeatedly heard the same announcement.

The people in George’s house waited patiently for one full day. The elders took guard of the house at various doors and corners. The creatures came again and again despite the bombings by the authorities.

George and the elders decided that they need to make plans to go to the nuclear safe zone outside the outskirts of the city. George and Gary would get the school bus that is usually parked a few streets away as soon as there is a bombing. All of them would get into the bus and go to the outskirts before it is night. They noticed that there are more bugs during the night than during the day.

According to their plan, George and Gary successful got the bus and helped all the people board into it. Keith drove the bus fast enough and they were on the move. As they moved towards the city center, they noticed that weirder creatures were coming towards their bus.

Keith stopped the bus and asked everyone in the bus to remain silent.

George stepped out of the bus with some crackers and burst the crackers on the other side of the road. All the creatures rushed towards the fire while George ran back into the bus. Keith continued driving them fast towards their destination.

George noticed that the creatures were not actually frightened of fire or troubled by fire. They were attracted to fire. He realized that the bombings would not do any good other than divert these creatures to a single place.

After crossing a few streets, another battalion of huge creatures were ready to attack them. Some of the huge spiders dragged a couple of people out of the bus and took them away far out of sight. All they could see is blood everywhere in the city streets.

The bus started with almost fifty people at George’s house. After being attacked repeatedly, there were only thirty five people left in the bus.

After much hardship and usage of fire, crackers, and kerosene, the bus reached the destination. The Army personnel allowed everyone inside the nuclear safe zone other than Gary.

“Were you bit by a bug or spider recently?” asked an army representative to Gary.

“Yes. I had a bug bite yesterday,” replied Gary.

At least twenty of the soldiers surrounded Gary and shot him until he dropped dead immediately.

George and Keith were furious and started hurling abuses at the soldiers.

The Army chief responded, “The huge creatures are not our only problem. We have huge people like Hulks roaming around there and eating other people. They are zombies the size of Hulk. Let us get you people inside.”

As they were trying to get inside, they noticed that the already dead Gary woke up and he had a beast-like expression on his face. The Army closed the gates immediately. Through the gates, George and others noticed that Gary turned into a zombie. He also started increasing in size suddenly. He started eating people who came in his way. A missile had to be directed at Gary to put him down.

As George and others were going inside, they noticed an announcement on the display boards. It was the President announcing, “This is more than a calamity. And, it is just the beginning. Let us be united at this hour and tackle this menace. We are yet to identify the source of this and find a way to save ourselves.”